Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Romney and Obama steer back to economy

They moved beyond the week's controversy on same-sex marriage, avoiding social issues.

RENO, Nev. - The presidential candidates tried to put aside politically risky talk of gay rights Friday and return to Americans' top worry, the economy, in two states critical to the hopes of President Obama and his rival Mitt Romney.

Obama discussed how to help homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure in hard-hit Nevada, while Romney was focusing on jobs in North Carolina - more evidence that each views the sluggish economic recovery as the key issue in November's election.

For both, it was a day to move past the week's back-and-forth on gay marriage, punctuated by Obama's announcement that he now supports it. Romney, who reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage repeatedly, was distracted by a news report that led him to apologize for decades ago mistreating a high school classmate who was gay.

"There are things that we can do right now to help create jobs, to help restore some of the financial security that so many families have lost," Obama told Nevada voters after he met with struggling homeowners. "But I have to say that there are a few too many Republicans in Congress who don't seem to be as optimistic as we are."

Obama also drew a contrast with Romney's plan for the nation's struggling housing market. While never mentioning Romney by name, the president criticized his rival and others in the GOP for saying the government should allow the housing market to "hit bottom and hope for the best."

Romney will navigate a tricky course on Saturday when he gives the commencement address at an evangelical university in Virginia, a long-planned speech designed to help him reconcile with religious conservatives nervous about his record on social issues such as abortion and gay rights.

The presumptive Republican nominee planned to blend social and economic themes by telling Liberty University's graduates that strong families are central to a strong economy.

"He will do better if he runs toward and not away from the issues of life and marriage," said Maggie Gallagher, the cofounder of the National Organization for Marriage. "Everyone says that the economy is the main issue. The question is whether a candidate seems to be embarrassed by his own views on life and marriage or tries to run from them, or if he can eloquently defend them."

Still, GOP leaders are warning activists against making the gay marriage issue more prominent than Obama's stewardship of the economy.

"I'm gonna stay focused on jobs, thanks," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) said the day after Obama's pronouncement on gay marriage. "The president can talk about it all he wants."

Romney took a similar approach Friday in Charlotte, N.C. He avoided mentioning social issues, even though voters on Tuesday strengthened the state's ban on same-sex marriages. Instead, he focused his remarks on Obama and the slow pace of economic recovery.

Obama, meanwhile, focused on preventing home foreclosures. He spoke in Reno, Nev., on Friday, the day after a gala dinner at the home of actor George Clooney, where 150 members of the Hollywood set paid $40,000 to dine with the president and some of his top aides.

In Reno, Obama pushed Congress to approve mortgage refinancing legislation. For contrast, his campaign pointed to Romney's past assertion that the solution to the foreclosure crisis was to let the housing market hit bottom.